Amazon has agreed to acquire Flipkart, India's largest homegrown e-commerce platform, from Walmart in an $18 billion all-cash transaction, the companies announced Thursday in a joint statement from Seattle and Bentonville. The deal, which values Flipkart at a modest premium to its last private valuation, represents a dramatic reversal for Walmart, which paid $16 billion for a majority stake in the Indian company in 2018 in what was then the largest e-commerce acquisition in history.
For Amazon, the purchase would consolidate its position in one of the world's fastest-growing consumer markets, combining its own substantial India operations with Flipkart's estimated 400 million registered users, dominant grocery delivery platform Flipkart Quick, and fashion subsidiary Myntra. Analysts at Morgan Stanley and Bernstein had flagged a potential tie-up as early as late 2025, citing Walmart's declining appetite for long-horizon emerging market bets amid pressure from activist shareholders to improve returns.
Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon framed the divestiture as a strategic refocusing. 'We have built something extraordinary in India alongside the Flipkart team, but the path to profitability in Indian e-commerce requires a different kind of patient capital than our shareholders expect us to deploy,' he said in a prepared statement. Flipkart co-CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy is expected to remain in his role through a two-year transition period under the terms of the agreement.
The announcement immediately drew scrutiny from India's Competition Commission, which will need to approve the transaction. Indian regulators blocked Amazon's acquisition of a stake in Future Retail in 2021 after a protracted legal battle, and nationalist sentiment around foreign consolidation of domestic digital infrastructure remains politically sensitive in New Delhi. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in recent years pushed to strengthen domestic tech champions, and at least two cabinet ministers indicated Thursday that the deal would face thorough examination.
Shares of Amazon rose 3.4 percent in pre-market trading in New York following the announcement, while Walmart stock dipped 1.8 percent as investors weighed the cash outflow against the strategic logic of the exit. If approved, the transaction is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2026, fundamentally redrawing the competitive map of one of the last major battlegrounds in global e-commerce.